Traceability in the food supply chain means that manufacturers can track the movement of a product through all the stages of manufacturing and distribution. U.S. Federal regulations require all manufacturers to have the ability to trace food products both forward (Trace-Forward) to the final customers and backward (Trace-Back) to the raw material sources. The traceability requirement is to ensure any product with a food safety issue that requires a recall has sufficient information to be able to alert and retrieve all contaminated product from the public, as well as to investigate back through the supply chain to find the source and the scope of the issue. READ MORE

As we started 2020, immune health was on many of the lists of food trends to watch for this year, nestled among snacking, sustainability and mood foods. You could call it a consumer flirtation—one of those trends flirted with by people but without a real commitment. Then COVID-19 hit and that relationship turned into a full-fledged romance. Interest in immune health suddenly skyrocketed, as people began to embrace immune-enhancing products to ward off the pandemic or at least to improve their chances...READ MORE

Due to recent wildfires in CA, OR, and WA, the original US Apple Association forecast was skewed. With harvest well underway in Washington state, new numbers estimate the crop being downgraded 10% to 15% putting the Western US crop (Washington state) at 168.9 million bushels at -10%. CA and OR numbers were unchanged due to unconfirmed data.